Title:[2017] Asteroid Gaspra close-up Caption: Gaspra was imaged by the Galileo spacecraft in October 1991. The size of this asteroid is 20 by 12 by 11 km. Copyright: Credit:NASA

Title:[3060] Asteroid 951 Gaspra and spacecraft Galileo Caption:The Galileo spacecraft (right) returned the image of asteroid 951 Gaspra (left) in October 1991, which is shown in exaggerated color to reveal contrasts. Gaspra measures 20 by 12 by 11 km and craters only 100 m across are visible in this image. Copyright: Credit:JPL/NASA

Title:[3061] Asteroid 243 Ida imaged by the Galileo spacecraft Caption:A mosaic of five images taken by the Galileo spacecraft in August 1993 make up this view of asteroid 243 Ida, which is 55 km long. The smallest discernible features include craters and boulders from 30 to 150 meters across. Copyright: Credit:NASA/JPL

Title:[4004] Highest-resolution image of Ida Caption:The Galileo imaging system captured this picture of the limb of the asteroid 243 Ida about 46 seconds after its closest approach on August 28, 1993, from a range of only 2480 kilometers. It is the highest-resolution image of an asteroid's surface ever captured and shows detail at a scale of about 25 meters per pixel. Copyright: Credit:NASA/JPL

Title: [4005] Ida and Ida's moon Caption:This color picture is made from images taken by the imaging system on the Galileo spacecraft about 14 minutes before its closest approach to asteroid 243 Ida on August 28, 1993. The range from the spacecraft was about 10,500 kilometers (6,500 miles). The images used are from the sequence in which Ida's moon was originally discovered; the moon is visible to the right of the asteroid. The color is "enhanced" in the sense that the CCD camera is sensitive to near infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision; a "natural" color picture of this asteroid would appear mostly gray. Copyright: Credit: NASA/JPL

Title:[4006] Ida's moon Caption:This image is the most detailed picture of the natural satellite of asteroid 243 Ida taken by the Galileo Solid-State Imaging camera during its encounter with the asteroid on August 28, 1993. Each picture element spans about 39 meters (125 feet) on the surface of the moon. More than a dozen craters larger than 80 meters (250 feet) in diameter are clearly evident, indicating that the moon has suffered numerous collisions from smaller Solar System debris during its history. The larger crater on the terminator is about 300 meters (1,000 feet) across. The satellite is approximately egg-shaped, measuring about 1.2 x 1.4 x 1.6 kilometers (0.75 x 0.87 x 1 mile). Copyright: Credit:NASA/JPL

Title:[4001] Image of Mathilde Caption:27 June 1997 at 8:56 AM EDT NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) spacecraft flew within 1200 km of the C-class main-belt asteroid 253 Mathilde. The fly-by took place at 9.93 km/sec and included high-resolution (180 m/pixel) and color (seven filter) imaging. Size of asteroid estimated to be about 50 x 53 x 57 km. Copyright: Credit:NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Title:[4002] Impact craters on Mathilde Caption:This view of 253 Mathilde, taken from a distance of about 748 miles (1,200 kilometers), was acquired shortly after the NEAR spacecraft's closest approach to the asteroid on June 27, 1997. In this image, the asteroid has been rotated so that the illumination appears to come from the upper left. This portion of Mathilde shows numerous impact craters, ranging from over 18 miles (30 kilometers) to less than 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) in diameter. Mathilde has at least 5 craters larger than 20 kilometers in diameter on the roughly 60% of the body viewed during the encounter. Copyright: Credit:NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Title:[4003] Views of the three asteroids Caption:These are views of the three asteroids that have been imaged at close range by spacecraft. The image of Mathilde (left) was taken by the NEAR spacecraft on June 27, 1997. Images of the asteroids Gaspra (middle) and Ida (right) were taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1991 and 1993, respectively. All three objects are presented at the same scale. The visible part of Mathilde is 37 miles (59 kilometers) wide and 29 miles (47 kilometers) high. Mathilde has more large craters than the other two asteroids. The relative brightness has been made similar for easy viewing; Mathilde is actually much darker than either Ida or Gaspra. Copyright: Credit:NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Title:[4007] Toutatis rotation Caption:These images show a computer model of the Earth-crossing asteroid 4179 Toutatis. The used radar data had been obtained with the Goldstone radar telescope in California and the Arecibo radar telescope in Puerto Rico. The object is about 4.6 kilometers (3 miles) long. The resolution of the computer model is about 84 meters (275 feet). The views of the asteroid show shallow craters, linear ridges and a deep topographic "neck" whose geologic origin is not known. Copyright: Credit:NASA/JPL

Title:[3062] Asteroid 4 Vesta from the Hubble Space Telescope Caption:A series of images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope between 28 November and 1 December 1994, showing the full 5.34-hour rotation of Vesta. With a diameter of 525 km (325 miles), it is the third largest asteroid. Analysis shows it has the form of a mini-planet with a sub-surface mantle, exposed by a large impact basin, and lava flows. Copyright: Credit:B. Zellner and NASA